Book Review - Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichi

There is much life outside of epilepsy - in books, movies, walks in the park, family and friends. Here is an aside into just one of those areas. The monthly book club read Americah for a lovely afternoon discussion with friends. Here is my review of Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.

Beginning in Princeton, New Jersey Ifemelu, a young Nigerian woman, tells us her story. She has taken a short trip to Trenton to have her hair braided before her return to Nigeri. (Hair did play a central role throughout this story.) Her story takes us in flashback and memory to Nigeria where she was raised and educated. She and her first love, Obinze, fell in love and ‘had a plan’ to continue their education abroad and remain together. They and their friends only had an adolescent view and glossy knowledge of America from television and books. The upheavals politically and culturally in their own country split the young couple apart. They believed the separation would probably be short lived, maintaining connections via email and telephone. Ifemelu traveled to America and later, Obinze to London. Their plan slowly but surely unravels as they experience lives as not only immigrants, but as ‘black’ immigrants. Adichie describes the differences of culture, race and class that must be faced through Ifemelu's eyes and heart. Ifemelu’s 13 year journey is the longest as she follows her Aunty Uju to America where she struggles, almost impossibly, to obtain work and to go to school. Relationships and the race issues that accompany them in America are developed, sometimes with great impatience but mostly from an ‘observer’ point of view. While in America, Ifemelu developed a blog entitled Understanding America for the Non-American Black. In her blog posts, definitions, opinions and observations were sprinkled with seriousness, humour and touches of sarcasm. Ifemelu also had a relationship with energetic Curt, blond and white; with serious and good Blaine, black and American. 

Obinze’s plans were halted post 9/11 when he was denied entry to the United States. Going against his upbringing he attempted, illegally and ultimately unsuccessfully, to enter the U.K to advance his university education. In his short time there, he also was exposed to a very different world than where he was raised.  Returning to Nigeria, he became a well respected and wealthy real estate developer. He married contentedly but not satisfactorily. 

Adichie's book traversed much territory besides country to country. Immigration, race, and repatriation intermingled with family and cultural mores and expectations. When the story seemed to grow long, Ifemelu's repatriation to Nigeria renewed the story taking the reader back to the beginning of the story. To find each other again, Ifemelu and Obinze reached through and over all of these obstacles.  All in all, a very good read.